THE MORNING SKATE — More Info on Finley and Capuano’s Future

January 15th, 20137:00 am

Kevin Schultz

The Islanders picked up the Hulk Joe Finley off waivers from Buffalo today, seriously increasing the size of the defense. Finley sounds like a stay at home, rough ‘em up kind of d-man something that is new and rarley seen in Islander Country (hey, we haven’t seen Carkner in a game yet). So that’s the good news. The bad news is he’s a former first rounder who has kicked around in the AHL and ECHL for around five years. He’s something of a 6th or 7th defender on this team right now.

Assuming this particular clause of the waiver rule did not change in the new CBA, I believe the Sabres still would have the first right to claim Finley back if the Islanders try to send him to Bridgeport of the AHL in the next 30 days. Finley’s arrival gives the Islanders nine defensemen in training camp.

So there’s something to think about when roster gazing in the coming days and weeks. To make room, Ty Wishart was put through waivers. We’ll know if he clears around noon tomorrow, more than likely from Bob McKenzie’s twitter. For more on Finley, I recommend LHH’s biopic.

NHL Center Ice will be $50 on cable, $60 on satellite, and GameCenter Live will also be $50. Based on this being, essentially, a little more than half of a season (Center Ice was $172 last year, GameCenter about $160), this is about a discount of 40 percent.

Not bad, League. Not bad. But you could do better.

CAPUANO ON THE HOT SEAT?
I’m not sure that I would answer yes to that question at any point during this shortened season. It’s going to be a weird year with everything out of whack and I feel like there could be less firings around the league in general. Less opportunity for long losing streaks, less time to have to worry about assigning blame or offering up a sacrifice. Maybe someone could look back to ’95 and see how the coaches fared.

Despite not even being behind the bench for two full seasons at this point, there have already been plenty of questions surrounding Capuano’s job. He has done all that he can to try to get through to his team, including icing five defensemen in one shift last season. The problem is, he just doesn’t have the horses to compete.

I thought it was a good decision to keep Capuano around for another season. You run the risk of creating a revolving door of coaches if you don’t have any patience, and that costs a franchise stability. Still, stability and affability only go so far. You have to win games. Unfortunately for Capuano, it doesn’t look like this team is built to compete enough to save him.